Archive for the ‘End of Life Issues’ Category

“I don’t know.”
This was the advice Dr. Mark Mercurio, director of the Yale Pediatric Ethics program, gave to a room full of Yale University bioethics students in a lecture on how neonatologists should find their way through ethical quandaries. It is not that he is unqualified. Quite...

In a recent TCS article on the Terri Schiavo case, Elizabeth Whelan, president of The American Council on Science and Health, says we should call “call tripe when tripe is served.” I wholeheartedly agree which is why I believe we should start by calling Ms. Whelan on the tripe — and...

I was in Okinawa when I got the call. “Mom’s not expected to live much longer,” my younger brother said. “You might want to come home.” I had just arrived on the island a few days before and had to fly back to mainland Japan. As I waited another three days for the next plane...

Over the past few weeks, the events related to Terri Schiavo have generated thousands of posts throughout the blogosphere. Unfortunately, many of the discussions — on both sides of the issue — reveal a complete ignorance about the actual facts in the case. As happens all too often in the...

After a three-year investigation, the Royal Dutch Medical Association has concluded that Dutch doctors ought to be able to kill patients who are not ill but who are judged to be “suffering through living.” The report, which contradicts a Dutch Supreme Court ruling that euthanasia should be...

After a three-year investigation, the Royal Dutch Medical Association has concluded that Dutch doctors ought to be able to kill patients who are not ill but who are judged to be “suffering through living.” The report, which contradicts a Dutch Supreme Court ruling that euthanasia should be...

The recent news that doctors in the Netherlands have been administering lethal doses of sedatives to terminally ill newborns has received little notice in the U.S. Neither the mainstream media nor the blogosphere seems to have taken much interest in the ‘